Dr. Jennifer Freeman appointed C4E Faculty Fellow

The Center for the Environment is pleased to announce the appointment of our first "C4E Faculty Fellow" - Dr. Jennifer Freeman.  A member of the center's executive committee, Jennifer’s appointment in the 2014-15 academic year will serve to help achieve several new strategic goals for the center, especially those related to incorporating undergraduates into the center's programs.  To this end, Jennifer has already started development of C4E's new undergraduate research internship program, to be fully implemented in 2015.  She will also help with other center projects consistent with her research background and expertise in toxicology and environmental health.

Dr. Freeman’s research interests are in molecular and environmental toxicology, cytogenetics, genomics, and epigenomics. Current research efforts in the Freeman laboratory are focused on investigating the adverse health effects of exposure to environmental stressors on human and environmental health using the zebrafish model system. The zebrafish is a prominent model system in a variety of biological disciplines and has become one of the preferred vertebrate models in biomedical research. Similarities between the zebrafish and human genome permits investigations into the molecular pathways found to play a role in the mechanisms of toxicity in the zebrafish and translation to humans. Dr. Freeman has been involved in the cytogenetic mapping of the zebrafish genome in efforts to establish an accurate and comprehensive genome sequence. She also developed the first array comparative genomic hybridization platforms for the zebrafish that were applied to investigate genomic imbalances in zebrafish developmental mutant and disease models including numerous cancer models. In addition, these platforms were applied to define and characterize copy number variants (CNVs) in the zebrafish genome.

You can learn more about the work underway in the Freeman lab here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz0fDBGEVc